Give Your Beloved a Sweet, Glistening Brain for Valentine’s Day

Life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re gonna get. (All photos: Andrea Zehetner)

Marzipan is usually manipulated to decorate cakes, fill chocolates, and make little fruits or angel figurines. Or, in the case of Austrian artist Helga Petrau-Heinzel, glistening organs, naked female busts, and juicy meats.

Petrau-Heinzel, who lives in Vienna, told us over email that she has an eye for the unusual and a predilection for the bizarre side of life, which she expresses through her work. She likes to tell stories, so she often produces larger scenes. Take these marzipan pieces, laid out on a long table on plates and platters, a visual feast that Petrau-Heinzel called “Décadence.”

Note the dish’s garnish: a delicate marzipan butterfly wing.

Would you like some raw meat with your pearls?

Petrau-Heinzel’s relationship with marzipan began several years ago, when she was commissioned for a project by the most famous pastry shop in Vienna. For the contract, it was necessary to use a sweet material, and she found that marzipan could be sculpted into wonderful shapes and given a very vivid look. She created a realistic bust of romance novelist Barbara Cartland, Spanish Renaissance artist El Greco, and others, causing a stir in the art and confectionary communities.

Marzipan: the perfect Valentine’s day gift.

Soon after, she began experimenting further. She went to the butcher for some raw animal organs and employed them as models, shaping and coloring the marzipan to create hyperrealistic works. Petrau-Heinzel describes the collection, which was decorated with strings of pearls and butterfly wings, as a decadent panel, an “Aesthetics of Ugliness.” In part, the display was an expression of her opposition to the still nascent economy of luxury gastronomy.

“Thick Anna with her Sweet Buffet” is a former ballet dancer who has lost her figure to her fondness for sweets, explains Betrau-Heinzel.

Though many people felt repelled by the exhibit’s life-like representations, some actually asked the artist if they could taste her gory confections. The pieces have since been dismantled, but you can still feast your eyes on the slimy brains, flavorful livers, dead, de-feathered chicken, and quivering heart that looks as though it just ceased beating.

Remember, this is made out of tree nuts.

Decadent, no?

Petrau-Heinzel is still working with marzipan; she recently made a cake being crushed by a high-heeled shoe. Her next project? A series of ladies’ underwear, constructed out of yarn, wire, and old lace.

Support Atlas Obscura

A note from our Editorial Director

If you’re reading this, you’ve likely found joy in Atlas Obscura. Now we’re asking if you will directly support the creation of articles like this one with an Atlas Obscura membership (and get some great perks, too). On behalf of our small editorial team, it would mean the world to us.

Stay in Touch!

No purchase necessary. Winner will be selected at random on 07/01/2020. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). Offer subject to change without notice. See contest rules for full details.

Add Some Wonder to Your Inbox

Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you.

We'd Like You to Like Us

This website uses cookies

Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media features, and analyse our traffic. Please click below to consent to the use of this technology while browsing our site. To learn more or withdraw consent, please visit our cookie policy.